A pointed parallel with Sony's PlayMemories store

I'm not a fan of Sony's PlayMemories store, especially considering it's closed to indy developers. It means they make money off additional functionality - much of it standard on other cameras - at high margins, rather than greatly expand the functionality of a camera by allowing access to innovative apps, which is how an online service should add value. The parallel with this is computer game DLCs (downloadable content), which has often been blasted for simply carving up the game into smaller parts and selling the sum at greater cost than the original product. It's how you erode the brand over time, and is driven by short-sighted managers happy to cash in on a brand's equity because they probably are unlikely to be around for long (this happens all the time in the finance world too).

About twenty-five years ago, fast food places invented the idea of the value meal, combo meal, or whatever you call it when you order one item to get several. Before this, you had to order your burger, fries, and a drink individually. With a combo meal, you could just order a single item for a single price. Sure, maybe you used to get a small drink and now you get a medium and you didn't usually get fries and now you do, but by gathering up the items under a single price point the restaurant can make things more convenient, get you to buy more food, and leave you with the impression that you somehow saved money. This was smart. This was a system devised by people who understood what consumers wanted and how they behaved.

The stupid way around would be to make more money by charging people for small items. Charge for napkins. Charge for condiments. Charge for the cup, the ice, the tray, and the utensils. Charge people to enter the store, charge them to talk with other patrons, charge them for the bathroom, for window seats, for privacy, and for access to WiFi. This is how EA has been selling their games.

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Sony I hope you're listening only because you aren't the market leader and you're not in the position to be cashing in on your brand yet. You can see Canon is in that position yet is already rolling out lines of mediocre products that people nevertheless swallow up and you probably can see the weakness in their strategy from your vantage outside. But please take a look at yours. It is more worthwhile for you to simply include those wonderful apps at $10 more to SRP, than it is to charge $9.99 in a store that has limited access and creates the image of a greedy corporation regardless of whether you are making more money on it or not. I know Sony Online Entertainment does this and I absolutely refuse to touch their games. Expand this line further and your brand will permanently be damaged in a hugely competitive field.